CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Satirday, December 31st

"Last day of the year." Shane mused softly as I played with his fingers. We'd found a tree out by the lake, almost the same as the one at school and since it was so cold and snowing we were cuddled up in the branches. I smiled and brought his hand up, kissing his fingers lightly.

"Tomorrow's the first day of the rest of our lives." I replied and I felt him smile against my hair. We had the names of everyone in parliment now and Shane was going to help me find a way to convince them to vote to change the constitution before April. He laced our fingers together and held me tighter with his other arm.

"What happens if you stop loving me?" Shane whispered after a couple of minutes and I looked at him sharply. I kissed his lips and frowned at him. "You're only fifteen, I can't expect you to love me forever, that would be selfish. I'm scared that one day you'll realise you never actually loved me."

"Age doesn't matter, Shaney." I denied, bringing his hand over and slipping it inside my jacket and pressing it flat over where my heart was. "Love is love, no matter how old a person is." I told him, and I knew he could feel my heartbeat, steady, strong, fast. For him. "And I love you, my heart beats for you, I can't stop thinking about you, you're in my dreams, I think about you when I wake up, when I got to sleep, my heart beats faster when I see you, when you smile my heart skips a beat. I love you, Shaney, and I'm not gonna stop so you can stop worrying." I don't know why, but when we were both cuddled up together in a tree - either here or at school - we could tell our secrets, say what we couldn't on the ground. Shane nuzzled into me and I could feel him smiling.

"'M never gonna stop loving you." He murmured and I smiled. "And I'll have you as long as you'll let me."

"You'll always have me." I assured, threading my fingers through his hair. "No matter what Parliment says in April, I'll always be yours, Shane." Shane held me tighter and let out a slow breath. Shane held me and I cuddled into him and we were silent for a few minutes. "Can I kiss you at midnight?" I asked softly, lifting my head off his chest to look at him.

"You have to go to the ball." Shane whispered, turning his head away and I could see the sadness in his hazel brown eyes.

"So I'll go." I shrugged, cupping his cheek and turning his head back to face me. "But, I still want to kiss you at midnight... If you'll let me." Shane blinked, his long lashes framing his eyes so beautifully.

"You know I can't deny you anything, Princess." Shane sighed and I smiled and kissed his soft, sweet lips.

"Practicing." I explained needlessly when I pulled away before I kissed him again.

"Think we need to practice a little more." Joe grinned, kissing me again and I giggled.

"No such thing as too much practice." I agreed, pressing our lips together again, and this time we didn't part after a simple peck, but instead I felt Shane's tongue trace my bottom lip lightly.

Princess Miley

I sighed as I watched the snooty elite couples dance in a fancy way on the fancy dancefloor to fancy music. It wasn't any of that that made me sad, it was the fact that Shane was standing at the side of the room playing good little secuirty guard and I had to play social little Princess. I pouted and chose a seat at the table closest to Shane, folding my arms and resting my head on them. I heard Shane shift and step closer to me, his hand brushing lightly over my back, sending small tingles through my body that made me smile and I turned my head to look at his concerned face. His fingers absently brushed my intricately curled hair away from my back and his hand touched my neck, massaging it gently.

"Are you okay?" Shane asked, his hazel eyes worried and nervous and I smiled at him, beckoning him down to me. Once Shane crouched down next to my chair I boldly kissed him for a second.

"My feet hurt." I whined, resting my head back on my arms, though still looking at him. "Other than that I can't breathe and I'm tired." I told him and he sighed. "But, it's better now." I grinned at him and he smiled softly, almost shyly. It was cute.

"Only another half hour." Shane told me after glancing at his watch. One of the other guard cleared his throat and he sighed again and looked up. "I'll come see on Monday." He said and I frowned, why not tomorrow? "As soon as this is over promise you'll get some rest, Princess? For me?"

"Okay." I agreed and Shane brushed his hand gently over my back in a soft caress again before he stepped back to his post.

"Your Highness!" I rolled my eyes when I looked up to see Alyssa coming towards me ten minutes later.

"What?" I whined, just wanted to cuddle up with Shane and go to sleep. I guess I wouldn't be doing either any time soon.

"His Majesty requests your pressence for his speach." Alyssa said and I sighed, I glanced back at Shane before I got up and reluctantly followed Alyssa. Every year the reining Monarch gave a speach about the past year and about the hopes for the year coming. Next year it would be me, it terrified me; as much as I was upset with the King these days he was still my grandfather, he was still sick, he was still dying. It made me sick to think about. I smiled weakly at the King and he held my arms and kissed each of my cheeks in greeting. The dude with the trumpet stepped forward and got everyone's attention. Right next to my ear. I winced and tried to get the phantom trumpetting out of my ear as the King was anounced. That thing was really annoying.

I sort of half listened to the speach about the Prince (it was hard to thing of him as my Dad when I already have a Dad) and me and the future, and half spent flickering my eyes between the King and Shane; Shane was so far away, so handsome, so perfect, and I wanted to kiss him at midnight so bad. The King on the other hand was pale and I could see little beads of sweat on his neck, as if standing there was a huge task. I was kinda worried about him.

"Now is the time to find that special someone and hold them close as the year of two-thousand and eleven come to an end." The King ended his speach and the people slowly started to mill away. It was one minute till the New Year, the countdown was going to start soon.

"Are you okay?" I asked the King, eyeing him warilly.

"I suppose midnight is a little late for an old King to be at a ball." He brushed me off and I frowned.

"Get some rest?" I requested softly, stepping closer to him. "Please?" The King sighed and averted his eyes.

"You are a remarkable girl, Miley." The King praised, kissing my cheek. "I will not keep you from young Agent Gray, I do hope your quest is a success." He said and I half-smiled before I turned and started towards Shane, I still had time. I kept my eyes on him as I got closer and I saw him glance around nervously before he stepped away from his post on the wall. One of the other guards said something and Shane frowned and stepped back. Shane looked down when I got closer and I frowned, stepping right in front of him.

"Princess." His voice was soft and his eyes were sweet.

"Gonna kiss me?" I asked shyly, stepping closer and reaching for his hands, holding them between us. Shane licked his lips and looked around, I knew there were people watching us, but I didn't care, I wasn't going to let anything stand between me and Shane anymore.

"I-" He cut himself off and sighed, letting go of one of my hands and he reached up to stroke my cheek.

"Ten!" The countdown started and I looked up at Shane hopefully. "Nine!" I squeezed Shane's other hand. "Eight!" Shane's hand moved down and cupped my neck gently. "Seven!" I licked my lips and waited. "Six!" Shane leaned a little closer. "Five!" I could feel his breath on my face. "Four!" Shane licked his lips and my eyes were drawn to the movement. "Three! Two!" Shane didn't wait for one and neither did I. I wasn't sure who kissed who, but Shane's lips were on mine and it felt so amazing, so perfect, it made me feel so complete. I sighed happily as I melted against Shane, my hands fisted his jacket and pulled him closer.

I heard movement in the back of my mind and a second later Shane pulled away from me and I unconsciously whined, wanting him back, wanting his lips on mine, invading all of my senses completely. When I opened my eyes Shane was looking sadly over at one of the other guards, I guess he was the one that made him pull away or something. I tugged on Shane's jacket and he immediately turned back to me. He smiled a little an d stroked my cheek with his thumb.

"You should get to bed, Princess." Shane advised and I hugged him, burrying my face in his chest for a moment and I felt him nuzzle into my hair.

"I love you, Shane." I mumbled and he stroked my cheek again.

"I love you too, Princess." He whispered, pressing a soft, warm kiss to my forehead before he sighed. "I'll see you on Monday, okay?"

"'Kay." I reluctantly agreed, stepping back and he smiled, letting his hand fall from my face before he reached for my left hand and brought it up, kissing the back gently.

Princess Miley

Monday, January 2nd

"Hi, I was wondering if I could schedule a meeting Lord Reynolds sometime in the next week?" I requested through the pohone to Lord David Reynolds personal secretary. I'd asked Jethro and Carlton to get me contact information for everyone on the list and I chosen at random and started calling.

"Who may I ask is requesting this meeting?" The woman asked, sounding kinda snobish, like she was ready to shut me down.

"Princess Miley." I replied, biting my lip to hide a smile as the woman gasped before suddenly becoming more professional.

"When would you like to see Lord Reynolds, Your Highness?" The woman asked and I rolled my eyes.

"Sometime before school starts?" I shrugged even though she couldn't see it. "Friday?" I suggested.

"Friday is perfect, what time would you like?" She asked, I sincerely doubted Friday really was perfect, but I wasn't going to say anything since I didn't know how much time I'd have when school started again.

"Four?" I guessed wildly and I heard typing.

"The whole afternoon is available, Lord Reynolds will be at the Palace at four o'clock." I sighed and marcked it on my list.

"Thank-you." I muttered.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, Your Highness?" The woman asked eagerly.

"No thank-you." I denied politely as I heard a soft knock on my bedroom door. "Excuse me, I have to go." I murmured before I hung up and dropped my phone. "Come in." I called, getting off my bed and the door opened as I aproached it.

"Princess?" It was Shane, I smiled and ran forward, jumping on him and hugging him tightly.

"Missed you, Shaney." I mumbled as I hugged him and laughed a little as he hugged me back, his hand moving around and holding me to him.

"I missed you too, Baby." Shane whispered, setting me down and brushing a piece of hair back from my face. He kissed my lips softly before he pulled back. "You're Dad stopped me on my way here." He said conversationally and my eyes widened. "He said as long as I was good to you his guns wouldn't be aimed at me." My eyes widened even more. Coming from my Dad that was practically a blessing. "You're lucky to have a Dad that cares enough about you to hate your boyfriends." I frowned at that, Shane didn't have a Dad.

"I'll need to thank him later." I decided, I didn't want him to go back to California thinking I was still mad at him. I was stuborn enough to do it, but I didn't feel that way and I wasn't going to let him think I did.

"And I have someone I want you to meet." Shane said, kissing my forehead softly before he went back to the hallway that led to the stairs that lead down to my sitting area. Shane stopped at the balcony that overlooked the sitting area and I followed him, but he stood in front of me to stop me from looking down. "Remeber back in September when I swore that I wasn't one of the people in the school who wanted to hurt you?" Shane asked and I nodded, after he'd poured the slushee over me to get on the ins with Ecklestein. "I swore it on my little brothers life, you remember that." I nodded, it had never occured to me to ask about that before. "He's eleven, he's my half brother, really, since my Dad died before he could be concieved, he was only a baby when Mom died and when Uncle Brown died..." Shane scratched the back of his head and I reached up to stroke his cheek. Shane didn't talk about his family much, I'd asked, but he didn't like to talk about it. He grabbed my hand and kissed my palm. "His name is Trevor." Shane stepped to the side and put his hand on my lower back, guiding me to the balcony and I looked down and saw a boy. He had the same messy hair do as Shane, and I could see even from here that his eyes were darker. I could definately see the resemblance between them.

"Why don't you ever talk about him?" I blurted out and then blushed.

"I try and keep him out of the CRS." Shane shrugged and I looked up at him, that didn't explain why he never talked about him with me. "He's a good kid, I didn't want both of us to have our hearts broken because we both fell in love with you and then I'd have to transfer him to California for the next semester... Since he won't be transfering..." Shane shrugged and I snapped my head to him.

"You're staying?" I asked just to clarify and he nodded, blushing a little and I couldn't stop myself from kissing him.

"Trev is gonna love you." Shane declared, grabbing my hand and started to drag me down the stairs before he paused. "Then again, it's impossible not to." He mused and i blushed. "You're amazing, Princess."

"You're pretty amazing too." I smiled, "and I'm sure Trevor is too." Shane paused and I looked up at him, confused.

"But, I'm better right?" He asked so cutely and I laughed.

"I love you, Shaney." I kissed him softly.

Sorry it took so long :(

I just realised that I'd made Shane swear on a little brother I never mentioned after that. Trevor is, of course, played by Frankie Jonas.

I have had all sorts of problems with my computer today; first it shut down half way through writing this chapter, then I couldn't start it up again, when I did get it started up it wouldn't log me in, and when it didn't FINALLY log me in it deleted EVERY SINGLE FILE I HAD ON IT! All my music, pictures, videos, writing... My precious, precious writing... Luckilly, I found it all hidden in some dark corner of the computer, but it deleted my accound so I had to make a new one and copy everything which made the computer constantly freeze up and go slower than a snail.
Now... Everything is better! I have all my files backed up, I'm on a new account, none of my stories have been affected at all (though I did lose all my play counts in my music player and I still can't access my admin account, so I'm gonna have to have someone look at it and fix it). I had a minor heart attack when I thought I lost everything, but it's okay now.

Sorry to say, but there's gonna be less Shane/Miley interaction in the next few chapters as the plan starts to unfold and come together (hopefully).

Usually my stories last for 25 or 50 chapters, but with this one I'm not really sure, right now we're just going chapter-to-chapter.

XOXO
Peace, Love, Miley!

P.S: BOOBS GROW PEOPLE! :P